Retailers Rethink In-Store Technology Decisions to Drive Confident Commerce

Digital transformation is a critical initiative for many retail organizations. In fact, the market is projected to grow to nearly $500 billion by 2030, spurred by experience-driven models and edge-enabled experiences.

In today’s challenging landscape, balancing innovation with profitability is an extremely tricky proposition. Every retailer needs a strong technology backbone, fueled by a cast of supporting or auxiliary technologies that promote speed, accuracy, fulfilment and upselling.

Here's where these technologies can position retailers to drive operational efficiency, enhance customer satisfaction, and keep competitive in a dynamic retail landscape.

Bringing Commerce to Each Interaction With Mobile, Modern POS Technology

Order accuracy, speed, value and convenience are important for consumer satisfaction, whether for low-risk, repeatable purchases or one-time, large buys. However, as consumers become more careful with their money and face more competitive choices, the quality of experience becomes inseparable from retail purchasing decisions. In these situations, having the right touchpoints to inform, guide or complete a purchase are crucial.

It’s why upgrading store technology infrastructure — including modern or mobile point of sale (POS) or cloud-based inventory management — is a priority for more than 40 percent of merchants. The goal is to give both customers and employees better tools and ensure a consistent experience no matter how people choose to shop while in-store. For example, bringing a checkout device to customers after a fitting or consultation to save them from waiting in line, or placing self-service kiosks in busy areas to make purchasing easier or capitalize on cross-selling opportunities.

Reimagine In-Store Customer Service for Consistent Experiences

Data shows that the majority of shopping (80 percent) still happens in-store, with foot traffic continuing to recover closer to pre-pandemic levels. The difference is in-store retail must evolve to keep pace with shifting consumer demands brought about by social and e-commerce. It's why 43 percent of retail merchants are focused on technology that improves in-store customer service capabilities, which includes mobile devices for store associates and better visibility into inventory for tailored assistance.

High online return rates have a big impact on retail operations, affecting inventory, supply chains, and logistics costs. The average return rate for online shopping is three times higher than that of in-store, making it financially important for retailers to attract shoppers to physical locations. This is pushing retailers to rethink in-store service, fulfillment, and return strategies to make the most of foot traffic and encourage more confident, intentional purchases. This includes bringing shipping and receiving to the point of sale, or rethinking store layouts to promote trade-in or replacement purchases while avoiding bottlenecks.

Minimizing Downtime Costs, Which Continue to Add Up

Amidst excitement in innovation lies conversations steeped in services and support. These are never easy — and can delay the procurement process — but they need to become more prominent early on to avoid poor experiences down the line. Unfortunately, many retailers fall victim to technology promises that don’t hold up with heavy daily usage. Multiple estimates put the cost of retail network or POS downtime at thousands of dollars per minute.

As a result, retailers are now asking technology partners more practical questions about reliability, maintenance, warranties and upgrades. They also want support for cybersecurity, device health, and system management, since ignoring these can be expensive. Even the best customer experience efforts will fail if the technology behind them isn’t strong.

Looking Ahead: Doing More With Data

The retail industry is sitting on so much data. The e-commerce side has done a better job of putting data to work, but that has translated poorly into the in-store retail experience. And too often retail decisions are made without the right information at each touchpoint.

That is changing. With more intelligent and more connected endpoints (from POS systems to self-serve kiosks to line-busting tablets), retailers are finally able to take a macro view of the store experience for consumers and make more informed technology, product and staffing decisions. Artificial intelligence will scale this, with more than 90 percent of retail IT leaders prioritizing AI as the top technology to implement by 2026.

The marriage of modern, reliable technology and informed, personalized experiences is the north star in retail’s future.

Michelle Connolly is director of sales, managed services and solutions at Panasonic Connect North America, a B2B company offering device hardware, software and professional services.